


Only For A Few Days

by theempress



Series: Promises Last A Lifetime [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Babysitting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-21 19:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theempress/pseuds/theempress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Jim had to look after a kid was in the Academy, when he had to look after his roommate's eight year old daughter while both he and Joanna's mother were going away.</p><p>Three instances which made Jim think he made the wrong choice in agreeing to look after her, four instances in which he actually started to enjoy himself, and one instance that he really isn't sure about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three instances which made Jim think he made the wrong choice in agreeing to look after her.

**One**

The young McCoy raised an eyebrow as she examined his nervous expression. What did he have to be nervous about? The sound of her father calling up to the two of them came from the window, and Joanna quickly ran over to the windowsill, standing on her tiptoes and leaning out of it to wave. Jim let out an alarmed squawk and quickly followed her, ready to grab her in case she leaned too far and fell. The recently turned eight year old slowly turned around and narrowed her eyes at him, which made Jim even more uncomfortable. This was to be an interesting few days..

Joanna's mother was taking a trip off planet, and Leonard had forbad her from taking Joanna with her. Though neither Joanna or Jim had fully understood what exactly they argued about, they both knew that Leonard had won. Despite his winning the argument, her father had other plans for the first weekend of Joanna's visit that he simply couldn't cancel. It was only two days he was to be gone, and although he had insisted Jim would be fine with her, Jim had his nervous doubts. He wasn't the best with children, particularly when they doubted almost everything he did. The young girl thought for a moment before walking off to explore the confines of the room she was to be staying in. As Joanna reflected on part of the argument she'd heard, she remembered a question her mother had said was for her dad to answer.

As her expression changed from one of suspicion to one of confusion, Jim began to relax a little. "Jim?" She asked, sitting down on the floor amidst laundry Jim hadn't bothered to clean up and brand new text books containing information for tests which had gone untouched for at least a month, her head now tilted to the side. It was his turn to narrow his eyes at Joanna.

"Yeah Jojo?" He asked, feeling his nerves start to creep back as a look of pure rage mixed with her confused one.

"Only m' Daddy calls me Jojo." She warned him, pausing before finally asking her question. "Momma said I should ask you or Daddy because she didn't want to explain. What are andorian shingles?" Jim's eyes widened in alarm as he joined the young girl on the floor, trying to fathom how to explain something he wasn't even completely sure of himself.

Oh boy. This would definitely be an interesting weekend.

**Two**

Somehow, Jim had managed to live through a day of Joanna's constant questioning on anything possible, from what andorain shingles were to why he was so annoying (not something you want to hear from an eight year old as a follow up to a phrase often used fondly by her father; "Dammit Jim!"). But he'd managed to get through it. As a reward, he deemed it okay to turn off his alarm and let himself sleep in Saturday morning. Besides, Joanna was bound to stay asleep as long as nothing woke her.

Or so Jim thought.

The next morning, Joanna was nowhere to be found in the room he shared with her father. She'd left nothing for him (except the moustache drawn on in permanent marker which Jim hadn't discovered yet) to pinpoint her location. As Jim began to venture all over campus trying to find the eight year old his best friend had entrusted with him, Joanna was having an adventure of her own.

"Does he like failin'?" She asked the woman, Nyota, who had found her wandering about campus earlier in the morning, with a curious look on her face. Nyota shrugged.

"He probably thinks he's the exception to the test." Joanna let out a giggle as the other woman, Gaila, rolled her eyes.

"Leave off Jim. He's nice." She muttered defensively. Nyota looked at her roommate with a curious expression on her face, but she decided not to question it. At least, not while Joanna was there.

"JOANNA!" Came a yell from outside. Joanna rolled her eyes, collapsing onto Nyota's bed with an annoyed expression on her face, one her father wore almost everyday.

"He finally figured out somethin' was wrong." She mumbled to herself, looking out the window but ducking down as soon as he looked in her general direction. As he called out for her again, Nyota began to think Joanna going back to him might not be such a bad idea.

"You should go back, Joanna. He sounds really worried." She pointed out, holding a hand out to her. Joanna reluctantly took it as she saw Gaila nodding in agreement. She grumbled and began to walk out of the room.

"I guess I might see y'all soon." She smiled and waved to them as the door shut behind her, the turbolift quickly dropping Joanna off at the building's main entrance. Joanna reluctantly trudged outside into Jim's line of vision.

"Joanna! Oh thank god." He breathed as he ran over to her, scooping up the girl and hugging her probably a little tighter than he'd intended. She let out a few strained coughs to let him know he was struggling to breath, but he didn't seem to notice.

Joanna took a deep breath. "PUT ME DOWN!" She yelled surprisingly loudly in Jim's ear. His eyes widened and he quickly dropped her. Though Jim could've sworn he heard female cackles from the building she'd just exited, Jim saw no one. He put it down to his ears ringing and began to lecture Joanna as they walked back to where she was supposed to be staying. Joanna's final reluctant argument was one that earned a few sniggers from people walking past them. "But Jim, it _stinks_."

**Three**

"I left for five minutes.." He mumbled in astonishment, looking around his room. _And apparently it was five minutes too many._ If he'd believed it had been a mess before he left, apparently he'd not known the word's proper definition. _This_ was a mess.

"All I did was try to make it nice." She mumbled, a few forced tears forming in her eyes. Jim uneasily crouched down to her level and tried to pull her into an awkward hug.

It was often said by people back home that Joanna would make a good actress. It was during times like these that she enjoyed using her talents to play jokes on people. The little trickster gently placed the spider she'd spent the better part of her morning looking for on Jim's shoulder, watching contently as it crawled inside his shirt. She then let go of Jim, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and brushing some of her dark blonde ringlets from her face. Joanna sniffed once more and tried to hide her smugness as Jim started to squirm due to the curious feeling of something crawling around in his shirt.


	2. Four instances in which he actually started to enjoy himself.

**One**

A small gasp escaped Joanna as the wind tore her book from her grasp. She grabbed at it, running to the window ledge and trying desperately to get it one last time when an unexpected arm much longer than her own shot out of the window and grabbed the flimsy thing for her. She slowly looked up to find Jim stood behind her, the book now in his hands. He smiled and handed it to her as Joanna eyed him curiously. Eventually, she took the book from his grasp and stormed back over to her area of the floor, opening it again. Jim sighed and shut the window, barely hearing the soft "Thank you" from behind him. The look of exasperation that had previously been on his face turned into a small smile as he continued tidying up the room.

**Two**

"Can we go see somethin'?"

Jim looked up from his textbook that the young girl had managed to trick him into reading and raised an eyebrow at her, mimicking something he'd noticed she did often. "Well, uh, what do you want to see?"

Joanna pursed her lips in thought and walked over to the window, looking up at the sky. "Can we go see a starship?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at him. Jim spluttered, dropping the book on the floor. It landed with a loud _thud_ on his foot. He laughed nervously, standing up.

"We can't." A scowl not dissimilar to her father's formed. _She really is just like him._

"Why not?" She turned away from him to look out the window again. "I wanna see a starship." Jim sighed.

"I'm not allowed to take an eight year old on a starship. What if you get lost?" Joanna waved a hand in dismissal. "Is there anything else you want to see?"

"No." She answered almost immediately. Jim sighed again.

"Tell you what, tonight, we'll go out on an adventure." Joanna's curiosity piqued and she quickly turned to face him again.

"What kind of adventure?" He had her interested now.

"You'll see."

**Three**

"OW!" Came the sudden yelp from behind him. Jim quickly turned around to find Joanna already on her feet again and brushing off her knees. Her left knee was now bleeding, and her right knee looked pretty scuffed up too. He walked back over to her and knelt down.

"Are you okay?" He asked, searching his pockets for something to try and clean it up. He found nothing and sighed. Jim found himself wishing that he was a doctor or at least had a doctor with him to tell him what to do. Joanna nodded.

"It doesn't hurt." She insisted, attempting to brush away the blood and only succeeding in brushing it down her leg, making it look worse. Jim's eyes widened and he took her hand, looking around.

"Right, we're going to head back to the dorm room -" An unhappy groan came from Joanna. "- and we'll clean you up. Then we'll go get the ice cream." She looked unenthusiastic about this plan but went along with it nonetheless, shuffling along behind him. "Do you want me to carry you?" He asked, wanting to hurry back and avoid any further looks of alarm from people walking past them. Jim chuckled as Joanna slowly began nodding. "Come on then." He muttered, picking her up and beginning to walk quickly back.

**Four**

It was clear from the loud splutter to his side that Joanna was beginning to struggle with her breathing once more. Jim sighed, attempting to lift up the eight year old to drag her away from the fire, but she kicked him in the shin, causing him to place her down on the damp earth again.

"You know, you really shouldn't be near the fire, especially when the wind is blowing in your direction. Not only does the smoke blow right in your face, embers could fly over too and seriously hurt you." The practically audible roll of the young McCoy's eyes made it clear to Jim she had absolutely no intention of moving, no matter what he said.

"How come you're near it then?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, arms folded across her chest. Jim opened his mouth to speak before pausing to think it over.

"Because you're closer than I am." He stated a little _too_ smugly. Joanna grumbled something under her breath and stood, walking five paces to another spot, but this time, she was even closer to the fire. Jim sighed, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her back to him.

"Hey!" Joanna squeaked in protest, huffing and folding her arms across her chest. "No fair. You told me to move!"

"I also told you to keep away from the fire." He pointed out, trying to mimic a look her father often gave him. Joanna glared at him, correctly mimicking the look he was trying to recreate. This threw Jim off momentarily, but he tried not to let her see. He failed in his attempt.

"But if I don't go closer to the fire, I don't get warm." She grumbled, turning on her heels and beginning to head over to it again. Jim grabbed her coat and pulled her back again, causing her to fall. She slowly looked up at him, glaring daggers at him.

"You could've said something." He muttered, beginning to pull a blanket out of the bag he'd brought with them just in case of this.

Joanna's hardened expression immediately fell away, a small smile forming as she took the blanket and wrapped herself up. She moved around, trying to make herself comfortable as was possible on the ground, and eventually gave up, sitting on the tree stump next to Jim. "This is a nice park." She mumbled, looking through the gaps in the tree branches to the stars above them. Jim nodded, smiling as he felt her cuddling up to his side. He put an arm around her and his smile grew wider when he found she didn't protest. He looked up at the stars then looked down at the young girl next to him, chuckling upon finding her asleep.

"Maybe it's time to go home." He whispered, smiling down at her.


	3. The moment he isn't sure about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This final part is quite short, but it's important for the next instalment of the series. (Yes, it's going to be a series.)

Though Jim was usually a heavy sleeper (a giant starship could come crashing through San Fransisco and he would sleep through it), there was something that woke him that night, something completely out of the ordinary. The sounds of weeping. He slowly sat up, looking around his room and taking a moment to realise the only possible explanation for the sounds of crying could be Joanna, who was sleeping in her father's bed. Jim quietly climbed out of bed and walked over to Bones', sitting down on the bed's edge. He leaned close to the mop of blonde-brown curls protruding from the blanket, listening for a moment. Joanna sniffed and turned over to face Jim. The eight year old was unlike Jim had ever seen her. Though various communicator calls weren't much to go off of and the past two days they'd spent together weren't much either, he knew Joanna wasn't one for crying. "What's wrong?" He asked in a soft voice, brushing the stray whisps of hair out of her eyes. She sniffed and tried to reach out her arms to pull Jim into a hug. Jim hugged her back and he smiled a little.

"I miss Daddy." She whispered through rushed intakes of air. "I don't like Momma's new boyfriend. He's not nice and he's too serious." Joanna let go of Jim momentarily to wipe her eyes. "And I'm scared Daddy's gonna die when he leaves here." She finished, a sob escaping her again. She hugged him tightly again, beginning to let the tears fall again.

Letting out a small sigh, Jim pulled Joanna out from under the blanket and sat her on his lap so he could look in her eyes. She didn't protest to being pulled away from the warmth of her blankets, but did begin to hold him tighter as he tried to pull her away. "Joanna, let go." He whispered, pulling her arms apart from each other and holding both of them in one hand, looking down at her. She looked dejectedly back at him before looking down again. Jim raised her head so she was looking him in the eyes. She had realised at this point that protesting was futile and looked up. "I _promise_ you that I will keep your dad safe from whatever harm there may be out there."

Joanna looked in his eyes for a while before giving a solemn nod to say she believed him. She sniffed again, rubbing the red patches around her eyes. As soon as Jim had let go of her arms, Joanna had them latched around his neck again. She'd gone from barely trusting him to not wanting to let go of him in a matter of 48 hours. _Maybe I'm not so bad at this whole kid thing after all._

It didn't take long for Joanna to fall asleep again, her arms still tightly attached around Jim's neck, almost like a piece of rope. He chuckled quietly and picked her up, walking over to his own bed and attempting to lay down without waking her. "Good night, Joanna." He whispered, smiling because he could've sworn he heard something muttered back.


End file.
